THANKSGIVING TIDBITS

We left for Pennsylvania at around 11:00 last Wednesday, since Jill had to teach part of her day. We also had my mom with us this year, as my dad had to teach a class on Wed. night (he drove by himself on Thanksgiving and got there when we were getting back from dinner). Our trip took us 11 1/2 hours with weather and traffic and stops. A long haul. At the other end, though, I got to see my cousins and aunts - it's the one time a year we can all get together.

I went out with my cousins that night, to a local brewery. I tried a citrusy beer called Wit's End and we filled some growlers with other beers. We went back to the hotel and played cards untiil 3 in the morning, the latest I stayed up all weekend.

That pretty was the theme for the weekend - hanging out, having some beer (the scotch ale and the nut brown ale were personal faves), playing lots of euchre and Sorry, and eating. Lots and lots of eating. I could talk about the seafood bisque and the mashed sweet potatoes and the scallop martini and the turkey sub and so forth but I won't. Instead, I'll mention the five kinds of pie I had - blueberry crumb, apple crumb, shoofly, grape, and raspberry. Wonderful.

I had such a good time. It was really hard to come back to reality...today is the first day I feel like I'm ready to be back at work (after working two days already). I wish we all lived closer and could see each other more but I guess the holiday wouldn't mean as much that way either.

Oh, we managed to make it home in 10 hours and 10 minutes and that included sitting in a line at the toll booth leaving Ohio for a half hour. I was able to watch the Bears come back and beat the Broncos and got a fair amount of laundry done.

I listened to the iPod a little bit while we were there - a little shuffle, A.A. Bondy's American Hearts, and half of Radiohead's In Rainbows. Here's what I played in the car (lighter than usual since I talked to my mom on my first driving leg on Wed.)...

Arcade Fire/Funeral
Band of Horses/Cease To Begin
The Beatles/Rubber Soul
Iron and Wine/The Shepherd's Dog
The Jayhawks/Sound of Lies
Ben Kweller/Ben Kweller (just over half)
Material Issue/Freak City Soundtrack
Tim O'Reagan/Tim O'Reagan
Tom Petty/Highway Companion
Sea Wolf/Leaves in the River
Bruce Springsteen/Magic
John Vanderslice/Emerald City
Wilco/Sky Blue Sky